The thing is, if you’re going to tout excellent service and name your restaurant “Room Service” to further emphasize that you will provide such great service, it’s just like room service… have excellent service.
An otherwise normal, possibly even good evening was ruined by the completely horrible service. We walked in and were greeted by… nothing. No one even glanced in our direction; finally, after 5 minutes of polite waiting (to be honest, we were gabbing away), StB and I walked over to a woman (I hesitate to say woman because she was like, half my age, so about 12) who appeared to be the hostess. We informed her we had a reservation for 7 pm, and she butchered my first name before indicating our table was the dreaded (in my opinion) center table directly underneath a low-hanging chandelier (ew, can you say dusty?). However, she paused and said “Oh… your party’s not all here… do you want to wait or do you want to be seated?” I said we’d like to be seated (we knew our missing members would be there in about 10 minutes, so it seemed pointless to stand around and wait), but then she told us the hostess would be with us shortly. Okay…
Another five minutes passed before the same girl came back and led us to our table. As I was seating myself, however, another girl swooped over and practically screamed at me to stop! before asking, “Are you Eva?” (Um, no, actually I’m not, but I guess that’s close enough) When I confirmed that I was indeed the person with the reservation, she said “Ohhhh, okayyyy.” before disappearing.
Our servers had no interest in explaining our specials nor suggesting anything for us, and delightfully did not inform us that the appetizer we ordered to share amongst the 5-6 of us was tiny and not enough for real sharing for the 5 of us present.
The dish itself, while absolutely tiny (though not expensive at $6), was also a disappointment. Fritters- basically a bunch of fried items with a generous slathering of sweet chili sauce over everything- were soggy and unimaginative. The lone shrimp was overcooked; the egg roll I sampled was completely soggy and flavorless save the chili sauce. Extremely disappointing.
As for drinks, we opted for Thai iced teas and a pink lemonade (with basil). I thought the Thai iced tea was alright, but the glass was a bit cumbersome both to mix the drink and to drink the last dregs, as the straw was the teensiest bit too short. (Caffeine and I don’t mix, which explains the frantic attempts to drink the last drops…)
And now, for our main dishes… the food pr0n!
Lotus Rattan Shoots & Salmon
Lotus Seeds Massaman
Spicy Basil Noodles (Kee Mao)
Lychee Pineaple Siamese Duck
Our rice
Room Service Pad Thai
(with the egg white omelet torn open)
Overall, the general consensus was that the food wasn’t bad… but the service just left such a terrible taste in our mouths that it couldn’t be forgiven. Even the serving of our dishes was completely unacceptable- the dishes were thrown onto the table in front of us, without a care for whether it was our dish or not. The pad thai was tossed in front of me, which I quickly moved, and the other dishes were scattered around in front of the wrong owners. And the food…
The salmon had a strange burnt taste to it, and was essentially flavorless save for the curry covering it. Still, BB enjoyed it enough- it was adequate, though nothing outstanding.
ShB enjoyed her stewed beef dish (the lotus seeds massaman), however she noted that it happened to contain food elements that she personally enjoys very much apart, so altogether it was a good experience for her. The beef did tend on the dry side towards the end, but “stewed beef is what it is”. She also really liked the sweet potato puree atop the dish, which added a nice sweetness overall.
StB said her dish was also alright, but that it was definitely nothing special and in fact, just like a Chinese dish- that is to say, nothing noteworthy nor worth the $9.
Personally, I ordered the Siamese duck (which, ironically, is listed on the menu as a Long Island duck breast) with lychees and pineapples and really enjoyed the pineapple’s citrus cutting through the spiciness of the red curry. I actually really enjoyed my dish overall, except for two glaring things: I asked the waitress if they could make it less spicy, and she said absolutely, but it was still fairly spicy (a heat that grew and grew). My second complaint was that the duck was not cut fully through to the ends, which were tough and slightly overcooked (though the duck itself was tender and cooked to perfection). This in itself is forgivable, but when we asked for a knife, the waiter disappeared. I stopped eating and flagged the pseudo-hostess, who said of course you can have a knife! and then disappeared as well. I located her in the back of the restaurant after 5 minutes of waiting, and stared in her direction. When she noticed, she whirled around, grabbed a knife and hurried over to slap it on the table. (Might I add, while she was hurrying, she nearly stabbed someone with it in her haste to give it to me at that point.)
HB, who had gamely ordered the Room Service Pad Thai despite being tired of pad thai in general because the special description sounded absolutely delicious, was pretty disappointed with her dish. The noodles were less pad thai and more vermicelli, and the various ingredients that had made the description sound so great (mangos, beets, the egg white omelet) were either barely there, too abundant, or just not what we expected. The presentation was very pretty, but that means nothing when the dish itself just doesn’t taste that great.
We were all so disappointed with our food and horrified with the service that we opted to not order dessert (“Why? So we can wait another 10-15 minutes?” said one annoyed B., though I can’t recall which to attribute that to).
It’s so unfortunate because with even mediocre service, this place would have scored much higher marks, because everything else was good enough- the decor (trendy with an ornament-ball-like-seat-swing in the window, a la Sea in Williamsburg), the atmosphere (a bit loud but super trendy), the food (passing to good, varied among the dishes)… What a let down.
Yvo says: Unfortunately, AVOID! until maybe they hire more and better service staff. Perhaps a good bar scene, but the service is just too important to overlook. How can you enjoy your food when you’re being alternately ignored and attacked???
not recommended
Elisabeth says
Had sad.. the pad thai presentation is quite interesting though. It would be cool to serve some kind of noodle (not necessarily pad thai) in the egg omelette and inject some sauce into it. So when the egg is cut it’ll come oozing out. Like a soup dumpling! 😀
PS – I expect (demand) to see many Mexican reviews when you return!
Anonymous says
Oh I didn’t realize I had a blogger account haha.. probably from school.
– Misslizz
SkippyMom says
“…alternately ignored and attacked!”
That put the first smile of my day on my face….that was funny – I too can have a good meal ruined by indifferent/bad/dangerous service. I was stabbed once at a steakhouse b/c the waitress chose to serve my ribeye with the knife situated on the plate facing me! – And she looked a bit put out when I mentioned to her that I didn’t really appreciate it – who knew?
Anywhoo – I popped over b/c I love reading your blog – and you mentioned today that the food looked good – um, the pics must of not done them justice – they scared me…giggle…and I am not questioning your pic taking abilities – your pics make me drool!
Thanks again FF!
quantboy says
$6 for that crap?
that’s more expensive than 2 of my lunches.
Cathy says
Next time you should put a “Do Not Disturb” card on your table/door, hang out there and just ignore them.
angela says
no way hosay would i go there after reading your review. no uh.
Anonymous says
hey! 😀 thank you for recommending five points, the food was absolutely delish! i got what you recommended which was the eggs benedict, but they changed it and coupled it with smoked salmon. i enjoyed it immensely! though the service was a little slow, my friends enjoyed their food as well. thanks again! 🙂
-sakurabunni-
awlrain says
I just commented on S’s blog, but I’m so sad you didn’t like. Oh well. I actually went for the 2nd time this past Sat and we thought the service was fine. Maybe you guys got the anamoly experience.
missbeancurd says
The concept of this place sounds really good (there’s a similar place on around 12th & 1st), but too bad it doesn’t live up to its name. Thanks for the heads up!